Indie news at Cinematical

You might have noticed that Cinematical, the film site to which I contribute news/reviews/features, has changed slightly in the past few weeks. AOL’s Moviefone blog has merged with the site. We also have a new editor in chief, longtime contributor Ryan Stewart, who’s helping us develop more recurring columns and interesting features.
One aspect of the Cinematical changes that I feel hasn’t had enough publicity and attention yet is the new subsite called Cinematical Indie. If you don’t want to read about the latest Harry Potter trailer or Lindsay Lohan’s rehab adventures, you ought to bookmark Cinematical Indie or its RSS feed. “Indie” in this case is a very broad term, meaning non-mainstream, and even includes news about classic older films.
Some indie-film news articles and reviews appear both on Cinematical and on Cinematical Indie — for example, Sundance coverage that attracts a broad range of interest. Most of my Vintage Image of the Day posts appear on both sites. However, there are some articles that appear only on Cinematical Indie, which is one reason why I recommend visiting the site regularly and often.
For example, right after Cinematical Indie launched, I posted “The Allure of Collecting 16mm Prints,” which is basically a heads-up about a short doc that Austin filmmaker Nick Robinson posted to YouTube. Because Cinematical Indie was new, hardly anyone read the entry. Normally I wouldn’t care, but I want to tell as many people as possible about Nick’s film (which is embedded into the article linked above) and encourage you all to see it. Go now. It’s only about 10 minutes long and it’s a fun glimpse into the world of collecting movies on 16mm film.
I’m hoping Cinematical Indie finds a devoted group of readers — there’s a lot of stuff on there worth your time. Jeffrey Anderson has a great weekly column called “400 Screens, 400 Blows” about movies in limited release. Cinematical Indie’s manager, Kim Voynar, is encouraging us all to write more about indie films, and frequently posts good reviews and interviews. I’m working with the editors on ideas for good features and columns myself. I want Cinematical Indie to flourish, so I’m asking all of you to pay a visit, maybe leave some comments, and come back soon. And then tell your film-geek friends. Otherwise, if the site attracts little interest, I may end up having to write more about celebrity gossip, and none of us would like that.